Interactive Content For Small Businesses

Interactive content can be defined as any kind of content that encourages user participation. This can be anything from quizzes and surveys, to maps and calculators. 

In the world of content marketing, this kind of content can drive great results for small businesses. But how do you get started with it?

Today we are discussing why interactive content can be such a game changer for small businesses. We will also be covering some of our main tips for making interactive content work for you. Let’s get started!

Why Interactive Content Is So Useful

While there are many reasons interactive content is worth considering for small businesses, here are just a few:

Enhanced Engagement

Interactive content encourages active participation from your audience. This leads to higher levels of engagement compared to static content. By inviting users to interact with your content, you can capture their attention and encourage them to spend more time on your website or social media platforms.

Increased Brand Awareness

Because of the enhanced engagement of this kind of content, it is typically shared more often than regular content. That’s especially true when users are encouraged to share their results or experiences with others. This heightens the chance that it goes “viral.” The natural result is increased brand visibility (particularly important for small businesses).

Valuable Data Insights

Data is everything. This is especially true for small businesses. The fact is, if you are a smaller company, you have less resources to work with. Every action you take is therefore more important. This is where data becomes especially useful. You can base your actions not on assumptions, but actual evidence. Interactive content is a great supplier of this kind of data.  

Personalized User Experience

The more personalized something is, the more positively somebody will respond to it. Interactive content makes this personalization possible. By offering interactive quizzes, assessments, or product selectors (some of the most common forms of interactive content), your content is much more tailored to what the individual wants. This increases your relevance to them as a small business.

Lead Generation Opportunities

Lastly, interactive content can serve as a powerful lead generation tool for small businesses. By hiding access to certain interactive experiences behind a form or registration page, you can capture valuable lead information. This allows you to grow your email list and eventual customer database. The caveat, of course, is that your content needs to be good. To learn how to make that happen, continue on to the next section.

6 Steps To Make Interactive Content For Small Businesses

Here are six steps you should always follow as a small business making interactive content:

1) Identify Your Audience

Before creating interactive content, you need to understand your target audience. Most importantly, what do they want to see? This is the first question you need to answer before you get started with content creation. As usual, this is where market research comes into play. Interactive content only works if it’s what your audience wants to consume. For example, The Zebra has a calculator that allows people to see “how much car” they can afford. This has a very clear audience in mind (people buying a car), and has performed well because of it.

2) Set Clear Objectives

As with most content marketing, clear objectives are the name of the game. What is it you hope to achieve? Do you simply want more brand awareness? Perhaps you’re just looking for more website traffic, or better lead generation? Whatever your goal might be, define it. By establishing specific goals, you can tailor your content strategy and overall approach accordingly.

3) Choose the Right Tools

Creating interactive content requires a certain collection of tools. Thankfully, there are many user-friendly tools out there. These include different software and websites that will help you create: 

• Interactive quiz builders
• Survey platforms
• Infographic creators

Choose tools that align with your budget, technical expertise, and content goals. Once you have, it’s time to learn how to use them. Don’t skip steps here. Often, setting up interactive content is a slightly more complicated than you expect!

4) Create Compelling Content

Once you’ve chosen the right tools to use, it’s time to create. Interactive content is great. Still, it’s not enough for it to be interactive — it actually needs to be compelling to the people consuming it. So, what does this look like? While the kind of content will differ from business to business, aim for three things: relevant, informative, and engaging.  This approach ensures that your content provides value and encourages users to participate. Just look at Mint’s interactive grocery budget as an example.

5) Track and Analyze Performance

Creating interactive content is not just “set it and forget it.” If you want to make it work for your small business, it’s essential that you actually track how it’s performing. This will involve keeping track of your main metrics like engagement levels, click-through rates, and lead conversions. Various tools will help you identify areas for improvement.

6) Iterate and Optimize

Once you have these areas of improvement, it’s time for our least step: iteration. Are there things that are missing the mark? Interactive content that you are making that your audience isn’t responding well to? In that case, it’s time to switch things up. Just like all content creation, you can’t expect to do the same thing over and over and get different results. Optimizing is the name of the game!

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